The use of electronic devices and software applications has grown significantly over the years. Today, a wide variety of different types of electronic devices are available. Software applications written for a particular type of electronic device are not always compatible with other electronic devices. For example, a software application may be written to be compatible with instructions for a particular type of microprocessor, which may not allow the software application to run on an electronic device using a different type of microprocessor. Moreover, software applications sometimes have problematic code, such as coding errors (“bugs”), or malicious code, such as viruses.
With so many different types of electronic devices, and so many potential problems with software applications, it can be desirable to run a software application with another software application that emulates the instructions for a particular type of microprocessor. For example, an electronic device with a first type of microprocessor may run a software application that emulates the instructions of a second type of microprocessor. This may allow the electronic device to run software applications designed to run on the second type of microprocessor by running the software applications through the emulation software. Moreover, this may allow the electronic device to run software applications that may have problematic code within the emulated environment in software, without risking having the code infect the electronic device's hardware. However, emulation software may require a lot of processing power and/or may be slow to run.
In view of the foregoing, it may be understood that there may be significant problems and shortcomings associated with techniques for emulating microprocessor instructions.